Dave: Surely true. The RealArcade has an auto-update system that can allow us to patch games. Other than that we'll probably offer patches and updates (if necessary) the old-fashioned way... via downloads from a web page.
tJY: There have been a lot of rumours as to whether or not the RealArcade release of Axis will contain a ladder service -- something that is very popular in the Korean retail version. Since Axis has been pushed back to September-ish, are there any plans to include this? And if so, will the RealArcade version and the Korean version of the service be able to interact?
Dave: Because Jamie's ladder system is in it's early stages and cannot support very many users yet, we opted to remove this option from the RealNetworks version until that could be improved. We can update to include it later once the system is robust enough to handle higher volumes.
tJY: And now a broader question, will the RealArcade version be compatible with the Korean retail version online?
Dave: It appears to work fine, but I'd like to do some more testing before I make a statement one way or the other.
tJY: There have been several add-ons / level packs created for the Korean retail version of the game, will the RealAcrade version be able to use these -- or have they all ready been included in the game?
Dave: To be honest *sheepish* I didn't know there were expansion packs already. I'll have to look into this now that I do. We are using the most current Axis EXE, so there shouldn't be a problem incorporating these if you can get your hands on them... but I haven't tested this so I cannot say for sure.
tJY: Many people have been worried about the completeness of the RealArcade version -- will all of the Korean parts be included? Has there been anything special added to the game, such as easter eggs, new maps, weapons, etc.?
Dave: I believe that all the levels, weapons, and equipment are included. One of the things that made this possible was that our compression worked amazingly well on Axis levels - compressing over 300MB of level data into just 150k (2000-1 compression). That unexpected boon stunned us all
We did remove the movies and the music because we felt that the cost (in download size) of those elements far outweighed the gameplay benefit of including them.
One of the things that distribution via download teaches you is to weigh EVERYTHING in terms of the benefit to gameplay. You have to be very focused in this regard.
tJY: No game can survive without a community, and one thing that prolongs the life of a game is the ability to edit and customize -- in doing so, create all new [free] MOD's for the community play (ie. Half-Life's success). Will RealArcade come with any type of a level / mech editor to play around with?
Dave: You are right that those things are very cool. However, that decision is really up to Jamie as to how far they want to go with editor and mod support.
tJY: If there is some type of map editor included (or released sometime thereafter), will there be an auto-update function so that maps are downloaded automatically instead of resulting in 'cannot find xxx texture, etc.' errors?
Dave: Great idea! That's one of the things I like best about UT and one of the things that has me continuing to play that game years after it's release. Currently it's not supported, though I'm sure that Jamie Systems is thinking about such things.
tJY: Lastly, is the game on schedule for release and can you give us any more clarification on the release date?
Dave: Well - if you know anything about software development (especially games), you know that it's tricky at best...especially at the end. Unlike the CD-ROM biz, we don't have manufacturing times and distribution time - so we don't go "gold" 2 months before the product is on the shelf. We finish the thing and BAM! We flip the switch and it's live.
We are in final testing now. There have been a number of bugs fixed in the last month and I think we are ALMOST there. In fact, I'm waiting on ONE final bug fix before I can build a release candidate version of the game. If all goes well, and the fixes hold, and nothing else goes wrong, and the planets align just right - I want to release this game on September 24th. So far everything looks good for this date. I'm holding at my 90% prediction from earlier (which is good... normally that % goes down the closer you get to the release date).
tJY: Once again, I'd like to thank you for your time, Dave, it's been a pleasure!
Dave: The pleasure was all mine see you in Axis.
Final Thoughts:
So there you have it! I'd like to thank Dave Nixon for taking the time to answer our questions and also the following individuals from our forums who contributed the majority of the questions: Rodness, Meph, Biohazard, Obsidian, The Great Merlin, LordSpawn and Ruthul.
If you have any further questions or concerns about Axis, please feel free to voice your opinion on our forums, or you can get in touch with the Staff through email: staff@the-junkyard.net.
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